Appearantly I am an awful teacher

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Hello everybody,

I feel really really bad about myself. I study psychology and I am currently in my masters year. Since a few weeks I have been teaching a course to second year psychology students that is aimed at developing interpersonal skills (it also involves a lot of theory). I do this with another teacher (co-teacher). Since today was the last of 10 classes, we made them fill out an evaluation form to evaluate us as teachers/trainers. But some of the comments were really mean like: too apathic, too closed off, too passive, laughs it off when someone tells something difficult.
I heard that the average score for teachers of this course is 4,3 stars out of 5. I think we scored 2,8 on average, which is pretty low.

I just feel so bad about myself. I am trying to not let it get to me, but it hurts. Especially since I will have to see these people again next week for a final goodbye.

Well heck! I've been in classes with teachers that I would describe that way and it really sucks for the students.

I would say though, if the teacher was young (still in school like you), I would always write truthfully what I thought, but I would try to be really kind about it so they would just know how they were affecting students. If you were trying your hardest and not being dismissive, etc. on purpose, then you should just learn from this and not be so hard on yourself. Teaching is really really hard, I've never done it but I know from being a student and watching.

It's not like you've been doing it for 20 years and you just don't give a s***. That's the worst kind!

I've noticed that students can be really nasty in their evaluations, especially with teachers who only have their MA. I have one teacher like that and even though she seems very nice to me, others criticize her for being "rude" and "unhelpful". Apparently, the real reason for these comments is finding her exams and assignments too hard. It is really beyond me... I don't get it. So don't be too hard on yourself and blame it on the students is my suggestion to you, given that I'm a student.

It's just so mean and nasty. It's times like these that I just wanna die.

One way to get over these bad evaluations is to accept teaching as one of your weaknesses and try to improve in future. Does your school have a teaching resources center where they help people improve their teaching?

The power of one is the influence that a teacher has over his proteges
this is the influence to create a yearning for knowledge

beyond that, every teachers ultimate goal is to inspire the creativity they are not capable of

I think you need to be careful that you don't let one or two negative criticisms over power any positive feedback. The low score may be an indication that you need to grow, but you are young and teaching is a far more complex and difficult job than some people think.

Some students can be intentionally cruel in feedback. Some try to "get back" at a teacher. But other students may be honestly trying to help show where they feel you can improve.

It seems to me you could benefit from examining the criticisms as if they were aimed at someone else and trying to sort out what is valid and what is just an attack. Would your co-teacher be helpful in discussing this to identify where your strengths and weaknesses might be?

I guess the important point is to recognize that a score and a few comments are not the sum total of your worth as a human being. It is easy to focus on one disappointing result and lose sight of all the other things your are extraordinary at. Maybe you need to improve. Maybe some students need to grow up. It's probably a little of both.

I don't know how feasible this is, but can you set aside the criticisms for a while (a month, perhaps) and get on with your life and then go back and look at them later when you've had a chance to get beyond the initial shock? With time you might be able to better assess what is a valuable criticism and what is just an unwarranted attack.

Of course all this is coming from a guy who frequently is demoralized by the slightest negative criticism. I have given up on careers based on a single comment. Over time, I've learned not to care so much what people think, but I'll admit it is awfully hard to do so. You are better than you think. You could probably use more improvement than you'd like. In short, you are like everyone else. Imperfect, but trying. That's not a bad thing to be.

Best advice yet by jagatai!

hey cafe, i'm a teacher and I fall apart with negative criticism too (don't many people?)

hey this is what I do when I think that a student has a complaint with me and didn't read me correctly, even if maybe they are not pure in heart: I pull them aside and tell them...

"i read what you wrote. did you really mean what you wrote? - wait for reply - I just want to let you know that i'm sorry, and it wasn't ever my intention to ignore your needs. you are important and your thoughts are important to me. thank you for letting me know how you feel. is there anything else you'd like to tell me or ask me now, cuz you have all my attention now and i'm here for you."

they can take it or leave it, be sincere or insincere, but I've communicated my authentic self and have reached out to soothe any wound I might have made... and I can look myself in the mirror when I get home and know I did my best and i'll keep doing better.

chin up so glad you care about your students. but remember to keep their opinions of you and your opinions of you separate. we're all imperfect and she isn't better than you.

btw Jagatai awesome advice

You're just starting out......I'm in an undergraduate teaching program at my school, we have to teach a full lesson to an actual class our senior year, everyone struggles with it. Everyone gets questions they weren't prepared for, or trips over things. You've got years to perfect your lessons and technique. Plus, and I'll be telling myself the same thing, those kids can't get to your core, they don't know you or have experienced you as a person. They can knock you for your performance on that day or those days, but again, it's subjective, not perfect, and your core is untouchable.

If I was in your situation, I would be frank with the students: You got a low score, and you'd love anonymous feedback from them on what to improve upon because you want to be the best teacher you can be.

Also, some people are as*holes no matter what you do. Some people have a bad day and take it out on others. Some people aren't ready for college and need their teacher to hold their hands in order to learn, and are angry when it doesn't happen. Whoever was upset with your performance didn't communicate well either: They didn't try to fix the issue they were having. Sometimes, we don't realize we are being one type of way and it upsets people. This is why students are usually encouraged to ask any questions or make comments. There needs to be communication. You have no chance to fix yourself because you had no idea!